COLUMBUS - If a 26-year-old Columbus man accused of assault after leaving a man lying unconscious on a sidewalk outside a city bar is convicted of the crime, it could be strike three under Nebraska's habitual criminal law for Bryan Groene.
Groene is in custody at the Platte County Detention Facility, charged with first-degree assault in the beating of 21-year-old Randall Scott Michalak of Duncan outside an 11th Street bar on Aug. 10.
Groene is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing on the charge at 3 p.m. Thursday in Platte County Court. He is being held on a bond of 10 percent of $500,000.
First-degree assault is a Class III felony, punishable by a maximum of 20 years imprisonment, $25,000 fine or both and a minimum of one year imprisonment.
The victim remained in critical condition with head injuries this morning at Creighton University Medical Center.
If convicted of the pending charge in district court, Groene could be subject to the state's habitual criminal law based on his previous criminal record.
Nebraska's habitual criminal statutes provide for enhanced mandatory minimum and maximum sentences for a convicted defendant who “has been twice convicted of a crime, sentenced and committed to prison, in this or any other state ... for terms of not less than one year.”
A conviction on the current charge would be Groene's third felony conviction for the purposes of the habitual criminal law. As a habitual criminal, Groene could be sentenced to a minimum of 10 years imprisonment and a maximum of 60 years.
Groene was recently paroled from the Nebraska State Penitentiary. He was released June 21, just 49 days before his arrest in the Aug. 10 assault outside Reeves Bar in the 2500 block of 11th Street.
The city man had served slightly more than two years of a 38-month to eight-year sentence for his convictions on possession of methamphetamine and failure to appear charges following a Platte County District Court trial in May 2005.
The district court jury found Groene guilty of the Class IV felonies after just more than three hours of deliberations.
The sentences on the convictions, which were each punishable by a maximum of five years imprisonment, $10,000 fine or both and no minimum sentence, were ordered to run consecutively.
Groene's 2005 convictions were his second and third felony convictions. He had previously been convicted of two felony counts of theft by receiving stolen property in Platte and Colfax counties in 2001. He was sentenced to 20 months to five years imprisonment and released from prison in May 2004 in that case.
In the current case, Groene is accused of beating Michalak and leaving him lying on the sidewalk at the west entrance to Reeves Bar shortly after midnight on Aug. 10.
The victim and his brother, Josh Michalak, were walking outside the bar to meet the mother of Randall Michalak's daughter and the child, according to an arrest affidavit filed by Investigator Gregory Sealock.
Witnesses reported that a suspect, later identified as Groene, punched Randall Michalak and knocked him to the ground, Sealock stated. The suspect then punched the victim several more times in the head, he stated.
The affidavit said the victim's brother and a Reeves employee, Joseph Zulkoski, both identified Groene as a man they had seen earlier helping an intoxicated patron to a couch inside the bar.
Josh Michalak later identified Groene from a photo lineup, stating that he was � percent positive” that the suspect was the individual responsible for the assault of his brother, Sealock stated.
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